Foolish Challenges
by Kirlial
Summary: I did not wish to be here. I saw no reason for any of it. And yet I was obliged, for my will was not my own. Still I had to fight, for it was the only way to prove myself. A short story of a gym battle, featuring a gloomy Leafeon.


**Hello, this is just a one-shot I wrote for fun.**

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I stared at my trainer in distaste as she spoke to the leader of this establishment. According to Cursle, as we called him, it was the seventh such challenge and we already knew it was a rather foolish endeavour. This was not our first attempt against the ice trainer and I saw no reason to be optimistic. What did our trainer hope to achieve by limiting herself to only the grass type? We were not meant for the cold and yet we were compelled to fight in it.

When I'd first been given to her I had charitably thought it might have been some misguided attempt to be kind, for in some respects it was nice to be surrounded by a team of a common type. That idea had been harshly shattered when she bestowed the name Pawn upon me. All her Pokémon were named after pieces on a chess board and that could only be how our trainer saw us, as pieces in her twisted game. This specialised team was just a challenge for her, one she handled ruthlessly.

The match was beginning, our team waited behind her, allowing us to see how events unfolded throughout this match. I held in a snarl even as Queen was chosen to fight first. Queen was an arrogant Roserade who seemed to love her place on the team and never faltered. Inwardly I hoped she'd fail for once, or at least lose her composure as the enemy's Snover started up some vicious hail.

But it was not to be. Queen was a creature of perfection and she smoothly sent heaps of toxic sludge at the Snover, hardly grimacing as it managed to launch some quick shards of ice at her before it quickly fainted under the assault. The violent hail didn't bother her much either as she swiftly retreated before the Gym leader sent out her second Pokémon. It was an almost ideal beginning to the match, aggravating though Queen was.

It was the next Pokémon that had managed to obliterate us previously, the eerie Froslass. White, the poorly named Abomasnow (in my opinion) was sent out next for he alone among us had some resistance to the cold and was therefore deemed capable enough to endure the Froslass' brutal attacks. Even from far away, I could feel the chill cold and the great power as they both used the constant Hail to control great blizzards and launch them at each other, the snowfall was growing intense and making it difficult to see the fight properly though I already knew what the results would be. The Froslass would survive of course, it was stronger and faster.

Still there was something impressive about how each of them survived two turns of vicious blizzards before Froslass deftly finished with a frightfully powerful shadow ball, now slightly winded. My trainer, she seemed far too relaxed as she sent out Rook. Rook was a fairly solemn Wormadam, a grass type, naturally, as well as bug, far from a good type match-up against Froslass but then there was no better alternatives.

It was cruel to send Rook out now, when he hadn't a hope of damaging the Froslass, but my trainer was both devious and ruthless. Her order of 'Protect' hardly surprised me and Rook readily complied. It was a command he received probably more than any other for my trainer seemed to absolutely love stalling. I myself had been taught dig largely for that reason. Predictably, Froslass was unleashing another furious blizzard directly at Rook but his perfect shield protected him from any damage.

"Protect." I couldn't help but tense as I heard the command being repeated. It was more likely to fail this time and yet she continued with this strategy.

I stared intently at Rook's shield, waiting to see if it would evaporate even as Froslass unleashed yet more Blizzards at it. If it failed at any second then Rook would faint along with White, and my trainer would be merely disappointed. As the cold threatened to consume the shield though I was beginning to see the method behind the madness - Froslass was unrelenting with its blizzards yet she was being tired out by the constant use, and they were failing to take down the team as decisively as she needed.

I breathed a sigh of relief as Rook emerged from the blizzard unscathed, save from the brutal hail pelting him. A glance at my trainer showed she also seemed fairly satisfied but then she turned away from the fight. I couldn't resist an angry growl as my trainer walked over to Queen and fed her some sort of potion to return her to full health even as Rook waited on the icy field for a command that wasn't coming. My trainer ignored my anger as she ignored Rook's plight and I could see Froslass' vicious grin as she unleashed one final blizzard, immediately knocking her out.

King Cursle was then sent out, we called him as such because as a Grotle he'd had a tendency to use Curse to sweep through tough battles. It seemed foolish to have him here in the ice gym when he possessed such a severe weakness to ice but then at least Knight, a Tropius, wasn't here as well. And as Froslass launched a shadow ball at him, it seemed to be an okay choice, for apparently it had exhausted all of it's ice power.

King retaliated with a tough earthquake and the infuriating Leader decided to use a potion on the Froslass while King continued with his quaking. Sadly, King lacked a great special defence and the next shadow ball was enough to defeat him too, now the ice ghost had taken apart half the team and it wasn't finished. I didn't know why we even tried, for this fight seemed a lost cause.

Then I was commanded to fight. I was uncertain I could even survive a single shadow ball for though, I had no particular weakness to it, I had a very poor special defence, unlike Queen's whose was very high. Why wasn't she being used instead? But I could not refuse my trainer and summoned up the power my species was named after. I ran towards the ghost, keeping my eyes on it, for it was likely to hide itself among the snow if I were to lose sight for even a second. I alone among my team was faster than the ghost and sent a flurry of large razor sharp leaves at it even as it formed another shadow ball.

My leaves struck true but the ghost still did not faint. I anticipated the coming shadow ball and yet it was still too fast for me to do more than tense as it approached me. Pain, burning hot pain erupted in my mind as it seemed to dig into my very soul just to inflict more damage on me. I was dully aware of myself being thrown back and landing roughly on frozen ground. I trembled, wishing for my mind to go blank as it had practically taken me out, I didn't want to continue. It hurt.

But the pain wasn't ending and I could feel the sharp hail digging into me, increasing my suffering. Distantly I realised my trainer was yelling at me to use another razor leaf and I struggled to my feet and began running without seeing. My foggy vision somehow spotted the Froslass also looking tired and I bared my teeth for all the good it would do. With no thought to tactics I unleashed another barrage of leaves with the last of my strengths, grimly aware that I was about to faint.

Yet the Froslass was too exhausted to properly dodge and with a vicious satisfaction I watched it collapse, finally defeated, and by my hand. Immediately my trainer was pulling me back and allowing Queen to enter the arena. For once I didn't even care, I needed to rest. I even hoped Queen might win, if only so we didn't have to repeat this fight.

Ironically, the Leader's last Pokémon was the same species as White, another Abomasnow. I watched Queen poison it effortlessly with her toxic spores. I almost grinned when she was actually taken out by a blizzard in a single shot. Then Bishop, a Tangrowth, was fighting and landed an Ancient Power on it before fainting to a blizzard too. It was then it dawned on me that I was the only Pokémon left on our team who could still technically battle and the Abomasnow was far from finished.

I couldn't quite begrudge my trainer for sending me out, knowing that the hail was about to finish me off even if the poisoned Abomasnow didn't. At least I wasn't the Pawn being sacrificed for once. It was my job to survive this time. My trainer showed off good tactics as she immediately commanded to dig under the ground, hidden away from both the Abomasnow and the hail. I was quick and lost no time in burrowing to safety even if I couldn't remain underground forever.

Truthfully I was proud of the skill I'd developed under my trainer, and I occasionally dreamed of distinguishing myself as more than a Pawn. I hadn't chosen to be given to this trainer and I hadn't chosen to become a Leafeon but at rare times I couldn't despise my fate. I sensed the Abomasnow above me and attacked it from below. Weakened from Queen's poison as it was, it fainted.

Somehow our team of Grass types had beaten the ice gym.

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 **That's the story. What did you think? I had a load of fun doing a grass monotype throughout Platinum, so I guess that means the cold trainer is supposed to be me, somewhat. Either way, I found some of the battles in it to be interesting and so I thought I'd write up about this one.**


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